Claudia Caballero, a district manager for Aldi, talks with applicant Manoushka Metellus (right) at a job fair in Florida earlier this month. With a low unemployment rate, consumers are still spending but business inventories fell during the second quarter.
Lynne Sladky/AP
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Factories have been closing in southwest Ohio for years. This Delphi factory in Dayton shut down in 2006. Economists say that to a large degree, the decline in middle incomes reflects the loss of factory jobs.
J.D. Pooley/Getty Images
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Seattle Police Detective Kevin Nelson (left) talks with U.S. Army soldiers at an October job fair at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., for soldiers who may exit military service in the next year.
Ted S. Warren/AP
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A construction worker looks down on the site of the Manhattan West project last month in New York. Construction was among the hardest-hit sectors during the worst recession in modern memory.
Mark Lennihan/AP
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